RHSA-2012:1149 - Security Advisory

Topic

An updated sudo package that fixes one security issue and several bugs is
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate
security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score,
which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in
the References section.

Description

The sudo (superuser do) utility allows system administrators to give
certain users the ability to run commands as root.

An insecure temporary file use flaw was found in the sudo package's
post-uninstall script. A local attacker could possibly use this flaw to
overwrite an arbitrary file via a symbolic link attack, or modify the
contents of the "/etc/nsswitch.conf" file during the upgrade or removal of
the sudo package. (CVE-2012-3440)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, sudo escaped non-alphanumeric characters in commands using

"sudo -s" or "sudo -" at the wrong place and interfered with the
authorization process. Some valid commands were not permitted. Now,
non-alphanumeric characters escape immediately before the command is
executed and no longer interfere with the authorization process.
(BZ#844418)

• Prior to this update, the sudo utility could, under certain

circumstances, fail to receive the SIGCHLD signal when it was executed
from a process that blocked the SIGCHLD signal. As a consequence, sudo
could become suspended and fail to exit. This update modifies the signal
process mask so that sudo can exit and sends the correct output.
(BZ#844419)

• The sudo update RHSA-2012:0309 introduced a regression that caused the

Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) context of the "/etc/nsswitch.conf" file
to change during the installation or upgrade of the sudo package. This
could cause various services confined by SELinux to no longer be permitted
to access the file. In reported cases, this issue prevented PostgreSQL and
Postfix from starting. (BZ#842759)

• Updating the sudo package resulted in the "sudoers" line in

"/etc/nsswitch.conf" being removed. This update corrects the bug in the
sudo package's post-uninstall script that caused this issue. (BZ#844420)

• Prior to this update, a race condition bug existed in sudo. When a

program was executed with sudo, the program could possibly exit
successfully before sudo started waiting for it. In this situation, the
program would be left in a zombie state and sudo would wait for it
endlessly, expecting it to still be running. (BZ#844978)

All users of sudo are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
contains backported patches to correct these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 842759 - selinux blocks postgresql startup
• BZ - 844420 - sudo 1.7.2p1-14.el5_8 removed sudoers line from nsswitch.conf
• BZ - 844442 - CVE-2012-3440 sudo: insecure temporary file use in RPM %postun script
• BZ - 844978 - Sudo has racecondition leaving sudo with its zombie child running forever

CVEs

• CVE-2012-3440

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate
• https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0309.html